Monday, October 22, 2007

Extreme Programming (Fires in San Diego)

This brings a whole new definition to the term Extreme Programming. I've been awake since 4:00 this morning since my neighbor called to say they were evacuating. Fires are burning all over San Diego county, including Escondido where I live. We packed up our things and my wife took the kids to her parents house near Irvine, CA, about an hour and 20 minutes north of where we live. I've got the second car packed with the few other things ready to leave if I have to. There have been several homes burned withing a few miles of my house.

I live in a canyon so I don't have very good visibility but I have not seen any flames. A lot of smoke and ash. There has been no mandatory evacuations yet, but I've had the TV on all day monitoring it. At this point it is the best source of information. I can't seem to find anything up to date on the internet. If you know of any sites that have maps of the current evacuation areas and the current fire locations, please let me know. The last one I saw that was any good is over 12 hours old and that is meaningless at this time.

For the most part I feel pretty safe where I'm at. I've got no landscaping (new house) so I have 30-150 feet clearance around my house and no tall trees anywhere on my property. My neighbors and I are setting up a watch cycle to get us through the night. Most of the fire has moved to the south and west of me (downwind), but there is still some of it to the north and east that is of a concern.

I don't plan to get much if any development done in the next few days, but hopefully I'll still have a home office when it is all said and done. My heart goes out to those families that have lost their homes today. I've lived through a house fire when I was a kid, so I know it can all be replaced, but that will not stop the pain and suffering they will be going through.

2 comments:

Bob Walsh said...

Hang in there Chris - and if the call comes to evacuate, don't hesitate!

Chris said...

Thanks Bob. I've grown up in Califoria all my life, so I know a little bit about wild fires and know not to chance anything. I'm keeping my eye on the news and evacuation orders. They have the reverse 911 which is a great feature I had not heard about before.

The wind died down in my area starting at 5pm yesterday. Its starting to pick up again, but nothing like it was before. This has been a big break for the fire fighters. Plus they are getting arial support today.